Daily eats of a Torontonian student

Summer Summary September 10, 2009

So my two weeks of vacation are rapidly coming to an end as school officially starts tomorrow. I’ve missed blogging, but I’ve been so busy since coming home I haven’t had the time to sit down and go through all my pictures at the end of the day! But I’m back now, yay! I’ve even managed to get almost caught up on my google reader this afternoon, I’m only one day behind!

In an attempt to not bombard you with a giant post, I’ll split things up over the next few days. First up tonight are some notable food moments from the past couple of weeks.

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I went to Chinatown Festival and we tried out some takoyaki (squid balls). I was fun watching them being made while waiting in line.

We also saw Vietnamese (I think) fruit and veggie carvers. Of course, we didn’t eat any of this. I think that carrot turtle is absolutely adorable!

My more normal days have been filled with lots of peachy green monsters (I might be suffering slightly from a case of yellow hands, but I’m not too bothered) and salads that tend to look like variations on this with avocado, (awesome) corn, broccoli, cauliflower, dulse, and sunflower seeds for good measure depending on the day. I’ve also fallen in love with balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dressing.

I’ve munch my way through some for this delicious shefu tofu too. It makes a really good salad topper, or pain as a fast, highly portable and filling snack as long as you have something to wipe the oily residue off of your fingers. Both the lightly seasoned and BBQ flavours are equally delicious in different ways (and both have sunflower seeds, which are awesome). And surprisingly enough, Whole Foods of all places it the cheapest place to get it from what I’ve seen, by 40 cents a package (which contains two vacumn sealed piles).

I LOVE watermelon, it always has been, and probably always will be my favourite fruit. Am I really weird for eating the seeds (I don’t chew them)? I shared this bowl with my roomie while spending some time with the Wii and he insisted on getting another bowl to spit the seeds into.

I’ve had some fun with CSA goodies. First there was fresh edamame (boiled, and sprinkled with salt). I’ve had them shelled before, but this was my first time popping them out of their shells.

And the day before I went home, I used my “extra” CSA dollars to get some honeycomb instead of more veggies I wouldn’t be around to eat. My great uncle used to have bee hive, so I remember trying honeycomb before, a long, long time ago. I still found it delicious spread on a slice of bread with peanut butter.

Speaking of spreads, I scored some Artisana Amazon Bliss for 4 bucks (down from 11) since it was about to expire! I’ve been dying to try this stuff. Unfortunately, all the jars of Cacao Bliss at the same store have best before dates almost a year away. So far I’ve tried a bit on an apple, and it was delightful, though surprisingly sweet. Now I need to get my hands on some plain coconut oil, or just a cleaver so I can hack open some fresh, cheap Chinatown coconuts myself.

I also found Popchips in a Shopper’s Drugmart with a particularly large grocery section. I got the BBQ flavour, and they were very tasty indeed. Loved the light crunchy-ness.

A few days ago I mixed up a batch of Gena’s Red Pepper Marinara, and it was absolutely delicious! I had it first on a pile of zucchini noodles and kelp noodles which will be elaborated upon in a post to come.

Then the rest went into a pile of green (and wax, and purple) beans, carrot, and the leftover zucchini from the day before. It was even better the second day because I let some of the water/tomato juice drain off. I used a whole large tomato instead of cherry tomatoes, and I think I should have seeded it first because there was a big watery mess left at the bottom of the first bowl.

Finally, partly as an experiment, and partly because they went on sale and I wanted to try them, in the last week I went through a pack of Stoneyfield Mango/Peach and Blueberry/Pomegranate yogurts. Both were good, with the mango being my favourite, but the experiment gave me some valuable information. I haven’t had any, or at least very little dairy for quite a while before this, so eating 8 yogurts in the span of 5 days first showed me what people mean when they say it’s mucus forming (kinda gross). Then the pimples! Gah! Over the last 5 or 6 months my skin has been approaching something close to the level of clearness (aka bumpy with nothing big) it was at when I finished a course of Accutane seven years ago (my grandmother gave all her offspring and most of my cousins a serious acne gene). So I was understandably frustrated when the yogurt caused my face to break out again. At least it was nothing too serious, and it’s starting to go away now. In other words, I think I might be off the dairy for good.

And no, I don’t think it’s important to be classified in any category, I was just slightly amused to see all the qualifiers involved if I were to classify myself to someone. Besides, I know the way I eat will probably change again, I’m just happy eating the way I want to 🙂

About Me

I’ve been overweight/obese for most of my life and at the beginning of March 2008 finally decided to do something about it. I made the eat well/move more sort of lifestyle change that’s needed to get things done and have been thoroughly enjoying it. I've lost over 120lbs so far and still have further to go but I know I’ll get there soon enough. I quickly discovered the world of food/health blogs and fell in love with them and the new ideas they gave me. I love cooking and trying new healthy foods so I hope I can share with you some of the best bits of my life and of course, my good eats.
Feel free to email me at plentifulplants@gmail.com.